Life

Find Your Perfect Coach Now

IRONMAN U launches free service to help triathletes find their perfect coach and gives users the chance to race for free.

by Mary Kate Williams

It takes a driven individual to register for an IRONMAN or IRONMAN 70.3, and competitors know that they need the right tools to find success. It makes sense that the same principles of success in business—hard work, dedication, and guidance from a mentor—can be applied to training for an IRONMAN.

With the new IRONMAN CoachMatch tool, athletes can now find a coach who meets their unique needs. The service is completely free for the athlete, and it takes less than five minutes to complete the questions. From there, athletes can compare profiles, credentials, experience, and endorsements of their top matches and select the coach they feel would suit them best. Athletes can then contact coaches directly from their profile and begin to inquire about their training methodology, pricing, and other important factors. The power to choose is in the hands of the athlete.

Athletes and coaches will be matched on multiple factors, including:

Experience in competing (athletes) and coaching (coaches)

Availability for training

Virtual or in-person coaching preference

Communication style

Data collection and analysis from training sessions

Goals and accountability

What's even better is that unlike LinkedIn, where anyone and everyone can say they are an "experienced professional" regardless of their actual tenure, the only coaches listed in the IRONMAN CoachMatch service are IRONMAN Certified Coaches. Every one of them has taken the prescribed curriculum directly from IRONMAN U.

A coach can be your greatest supporter and provide the accountability needed to stick with your training plan. That is where IRONMAN CoachMatch comes into play. With the goal of giving athletes the best possible day when they compete, the service was the end goal of over a year's worth of development into IRONMAN U. As Paula Newby-Fraser, an IRONMAN legend and now an IRONMAN U Master Coach said, "if you want to maximize your chance of having your best day, on what could be one of the most memorable days of your life, you should hire a coach."

"Our athletes train for an average of six to nine months to prepare for an IRONMAN or IRONMAN 70.3 event and we have a vested interest in making sure that coaches have the knowledge and acumen that is so critical to race day enjoyment and success," said IRONMAN Chief Executive Officer Andrew Messick when the Coaching Certification Program was announced in May. Now that the first class of IRONMAN Certified Coaches has completed the coursework required, athletes now have a pool of coaches to choose from.

Dave Scott, another IRONMAN legend and Master Coach involved with the development of the Coaching Certification Program, has offered his view of how the IRONMAN CoachMatch service will support the needs of IRONMAN athletes. "If an athlete has plateaued, or gets injured, or wants to increase their lean body weight, or get into strength training, they are going to have dependable, trained coaches to go to," he said of the program. All the athlete has to do is go to the CoachMatch service and they can find what they need for their individual goals.

To celebrate the launch of CoachMatch, anyone who uses the service will be entered into a drawing and one lucky winner will get to race FREE for an entire year(restrictions apply, click here for complete rules)! If you are in need of someone to guide and give shape to your training for an IRONMAN or IRONMAN 70.3 event, check out IRONMAN CoachMatch. And if you are a coach wanting to get on the list of matches that athletes are seeing, get certified now.